The present invention relates in general to chemiluminescent methods and materials and in particular to methods and materials involving chemiluminescent acridinium and phenanthridinium salts.
Chemiluminescence may be defined as the generation of light from a chemical reaction. The mechanism of most chemiluminescent reactions is not known in detail, but a generalized mechanism [Schuster et al., Advances in Physical Organic Chemistry, 187-238 (1984)] may be outlined: EQU A.fwdarw.B* .fwdarw.B+h.nu.
Compound A undergoes a chemical reaction (usually oxidation) to yield a product in an electronically excited State ("B*"). As it returns to the ground state ("B"), this product gives up energy in the form of light ("h.nu.").
Although competing dark reactions may decrease the efficiency of the overall reaction to less than 1%, some bioluminescent systems may achieve 60-70% efficiency, and, in many cases, limits of detection in the femtomole (10.sup.-15 mole) to attomole (10.sup.-18 mole) range have been recorded.
Chemiluminescence has been used for a variety of purposes in analytical chemistry where other methods fail to have adequate sensitivity. In immunodiagnostics, chemiluminescent immunoassays ("CLIA") may thus match or exceed the sensitivity of radioimmunoassays ("RIA") or enzyme immunoassays ("EIA") [Kricka et al., Diagnostic Medicine, 1, 45-52 (1984)].
Luminol and isoluminol derivatives are the most widely used chemiluminescent reagents for immunoassays. The light-yielding reaction is initiated by oxidation with alkaline hydrogen peroxide in the presence of catalysts such as microperoxidase or transition metal ions. Light emission occurs at about 465 nm, which corresponds to the fluorescence emission of the product, aminopthalic acid. Aminobutylethyl isoluminol ("ABEI") may be used as a label in immunoassays and is commercially available.
A second group of chemiluminescent reagents, aryl oxalates [Gill, Aldrichimica Acta, 16, 59-61 (1983) and Catherall et al., J. Chem. Soc. Faraday Trans. 2, 80, 823-834 (1984)], have been used as commercial cold light sources [see e.g., Tseng et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,338,213] and in high performance liquid chromatography ("HPLC") detectors [Kobayashi et al., Anal. Chem., 52, 424-427 (1980) and Miyaguchi et al., J. Chromatogr., 303, 173-176 (1984)]. It is thought that these derivatives react with hydrogen peroxide in buffered or unbuffered solvents to give a dioxetan-dione which decomposes quickly to give CO.sub.2 in an excited state. Energy is then transferred by electron transfer to a fluorescer molecule which emits light.
A third group of reagents, 10-methyl-acridinium-9-carboxylic acid aryl esters, are chemiluminescent in the presence of alkaline hydrogen peroxide and in the absence of a catalyst. The mechanism is thought to involve initial attack by a hydroperoxide anion, followed by intramolecular displacement of the phenolate (the "leaving group") to give a strained dioxetan-one. The strained dioxetan-one decomposes to CO.sub.2 and excited N-methyl-acridone, which emits light at 430 nm. Carboxy-substituted acridinium salts have been used as labels in immunoassays [Weeks et al., Clin. Chem., 29, 1474-79 (1983); Campell et al., European Patent Application No. 82,636; and McCapra et al., UK Patent No. GB 1,461,877]. Also, 5-methyl-phenanthridinium-6-carboxylic acid aryl esters, which are isomeric with the acridinium aryl esters, have been used as labels in immunoassays [Lin et al, European Patent Application No. 170,415].
Despite their usefulness in immunoassays, antibody-conjugated phenyl 10-methyl-9-acridiniumcarboxalates, in our hands, are unstable due to hydrolysis above pH 4.0 (-20.degree. C. to 40.degree. C.), losing greater than 10% of their activity within three days. Although acridinium esters are stable below pH 4.0, conjugate antibodies are often not stable in this pH range.
In Tseng et al., supra, bis-N-alkyl-N-trifluoromethyl sulfonyl oxalamides are indicated to be more stable than the corresponding aryl esters and are also indicated to be as efficient. The nucleofugacity of the phenol and the trifluoromethyl sulfonamide are indicated to be comparable, i.e. it is indicated that each has a pK.sub.a of about 7. Gill, supra, "looks forward" to the development of a particular sulfonyl oxalamide as an example of an oxalate with "higher" quantum efficiency.